Year of Fear Recap

I wanted to do a recap on my Year of Fear Challenge. I only "successfully" completed 4 months but I felt an amazing push out of my comfort zone and into some great places.

There were also many bonus fears I tackled during 2019 simply because it was my "year of fear".  It was helpful to reframe scary things into a positive action, even saying "year of fear" out loud, before attempting something, oddly helped too.

JANUARY /I tackled my jumping into water fear.  This was a huge fear of mine.  I'm so damn proud of myself for this one.  A year later and although jumping still scares me, I do it every single time I go for a swim and it feels liberating.  My big goal before the end of 2019 was to jump off the highest point at our local waterhole but with a new bridge being built and the area barricaded off, it was out of my control.  I'm still committed to completing this challenge once it re-opens.

FEBRUARY /I bloody asked for coffee grounds.  Gosh, even I can see how insanely juvenile this fear is but in a broader context it allowed me to identify the big role, social anxiety/fear plays in my life.  The fears are still there but now I can articulate them more - the first step right?

MARCH dropped the ball

APRIL /Spoke at Dad's funeral.  I have a super strong fear of public speaking but I'm so glad I did it, as it was a really important action for me. I often reflect back upon my bravery not only for the few minutes I spoke but for navigating my way through everything that fell upon me. I'm going to blog a yearly recap soon and I'm going to delve a little deeper into this year's happenings.

MAY /Went to my first ever yoga class. I can happily say, I've been going every single week (minus a few special absences).  This alone makes me deliriously happy. I found a class in my town with a teacher who is amazing and does a class that incorporates flow yoga and vipassana meditation. I'm quick to hold myself back from saying Yoga/Meditation has changed my life but it has bought something to my life; a calmness, a stillness, a present-ness that I crave, yet often find hard to bring in on my own.

Some other ideas I'd still like to tick off in the future include;
/bikini wearing at the beach - I'm strictly, a one-piece bathing suit girl
/go to some sort of rave - mega social alert!
/back to my 100 strangers portraits

The big dream is that this challenge inspires someone else out there to try it themselves.  Maybe you don't need a fear per month (obviously a guideline I couldn't stick to either) but a toned down challenge - one fear, for the year that you could address.  Just a thought.

I've has a few ideas floating around for my 2020 challenge but I'm pretty stocked with the final choice.  I'm going to put up a blog entry about it tomorrow and of course, as always, anyone is free to join along with me :) :)